Today in 2009, The World Digital Library was launched. From the the library’s website: “U.S. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington proposed the establishment of the WDL in a speech to the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO in June 2005. The basic idea was to create an Internet-based, easily-accessible collection of the world’s cultural riches that would tell the stories and highlight the achievements of all countries and cultures, thereby promoting cross-cultural awareness and understanding.”

Above is one of the items displayed by the library, a 1738 map of Palestine that was part of the work of French geographer Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville (1697-1782), to “re-map the lands of the Old Testament. It displays insets of the city of Jerusalem, the territories of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and the locations of the region’s cities in relation to each other.”

See also The Digital Public Library of America Launched